Colouricious holidays craft tour

Come on a craft tour to Kerala

Colouricious Holidays offer you the opportunity to travel the Kerala region of India and delve into the wonderful craft culture that has been thriving there for centuries. On this craft tour you will visit crafting centres participating in a a range of creative workshops all organised for your enjoyment. You won"t have to worry about a thing! Here are a few of the crafts you can expect to experience, ready to takeaway new skills for your own creative home projects.

TASARA Centre for Creative Weaving

The TASARA Centre is located in the Beypore village of Kerala,along India’s west coast. ‘Tasara’ means ‘weaver’s shuttle’ in Sanskrit. The centre works to bring together both contemporary and traditional weavers and other textile artists to encourage both a respect for traditional forms and real innovation. The TASRA centre’s Artist in Residence programme has given studio space and facilities to support to artists and artisans throughout India for more than 25 years. And has jump-started the careers of many successful textile artists and painters.

TASRA also provides extensive training opportunities in weaving and both traditional and batik dyeing, using natural dyes and pigments as well as modern chemical colours. Its annual textile workshops have become a gathering place for weavers and textile artists throughout India to meet, network and collaborate.

Pottery Making 

Kolenchery is a small town in Kerala State, specifically a few kilometres east of Cocin in Ernakulam district, near India’s west coast. One of its most important features, as far as Colouricious Holidays is concerned, is the Pottery Making Unit which focuses on the traditional terra cotta pottery techniques of Kerala State. Not only is this an opportunity to see the works of some of India’s premier workers in terra cotta pottery, it is a chance to gain insight into the way this traditional crafting material (and a mixture of traditional and modern techniques) can be used to create art that is both thoroughly modern yet truly timeless.

Toddy Tapping

Throughout Kerala, toddy tapping is conducted in the same way it has been for hundreds if not thousands of years. The ‘palm toddy’ or simply ‘toddy’, is harvested from coconut palms without cutting down the coconuts – if they are instead carefully ‘tapped’, the milk inside will refill over time. In this way, a single tree can produce hundreds of litres of coconut milk each day. You’ll learn how this is accomplished, and also how to make a delicious palm toddy – even with purchased coconuts at home.

Kalaripayattu

Kalaripayattu is one of India’s oldest martial arts, and one of the oldest continuously practiced martial arts in the world. ‘Kalari’ means battle or battlefield, and ‘Kalaripayattu’ means ‘Practice in the Arts of the Battlefield’. Its written history is more than 2300 years old, but it is believed that many of the practices go back much further. It involves the use of what we would call mideval weapons, especially shields, spears, bows, swords and the more obscure silambam.

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Creative Holiday - Bhutan"s Textiles

A Creative Holiday to Bhutan

Do you love beautiful fabrics and sumptuous colours? If so you’re going to love the journey of exploration that Colouricious Holidays have planned for you. If you sew and love fabrics and want to embark on a journey into the heart of Bhutanese textiles then look no further. You will explore the heart of local textiles and will be taken on a journey to delight your senses on this creative holiday. You’ll be able to sample local food and culture and a variety of different crafts at local markets. Hosted by the wonderful Isha Sharma, you will be guided through Bhutan"s textile and craft hotspots. You will stay in personally selected hotels to give you maximum comfort to expand your creativity.

Creative holidays with a difference

With Colouricious Textile Holidays to Bhutan, you’re sure to get a craft holiday with a difference bringing you to destinations you’ve never been to before. You can discover hidden gems like rural villages which still do traditional crafts off the beaten track. Our local knowledge enables us to find the best traditional local craft centres which offer the highest quality materials and textiles for you to discover on your journey of a lifetime. One of these destinations is the National Institute of Zorig Chusum. It"s an arts and crafts school teaching the 13 traditional crafts of Bhutan. These include embroidery, weaving, painting, wood carving, calligraphy and sculpting to name a few. You will witness students being trained in these ancient techniques helping protect the invaluable heritage of Bhutan. It"s great way to integrate yourself into their way of life, watching locals making local crafts and being able to join in and try them for yourself!

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Discover the magic of the Bhutan Valley

Our creative holidays to Bhutan begin in London where you’ll fly to Delhi and then arrive in the sacred Paro Valley in Bhutan. This valley is considered one of the most picturesque in Bhutan with the river of Paro Chhu meandering through it"s flat fields. There is so much to see from the richly decorated shops and houses to the 155 temples and monasteries in this area dating back to the 14^th century. It"s also home to Bhutan"s iconic landmark, the Tiger’s Nest. This beautiful temple, built on a cliff face, sits 900 hundred meters above the Paro Valley. It is believed Guru Rimpoche flew on a tigress and landed in cave on the cliff face anointing this as the location to build a monastery. He mediated here for 3 years, 3 months, 3 days and 3 hours to subdue the demon tigress. It is considered the most holiest of sites as it"s believed Guru Rimpoche established Buddhism in Bhutan. The temple is built into the cliff face where you can explore the caves and walk along stairways made in the rock. There are many beautiful paintings on the walls even the scenic woodland path to approach the site is littered with prayer flags. Click here see the top attractions Part Valley has to offer.

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During your trip you’ll be introduced to Bhutanese culture and discover its sacred ancient history. You’ll discover the Buddhist religious culture and folklore.You’ll be given a tour of the beautiful textile museums and see local hand weaving in practice taking part in painting and weaving workshops. You’ll have such a wonderful time in Bhutan, discovering textiles and crafts and culture that you won’t want to leave.

Feast your eyes on Bhutan"s architecture

Be sure to bring a good camera because you won’t want to miss out on capturing the essence of Bhutan’s culture or miss the beautiful architecture and craftsmanship. You’ll see breath-taking scenery especially at Buddha point. Incredibly, it stands at 169 feet and contains 125,000 smaller Buddha"s also gilded and made of bronze. It"s one of the biggest Buddha statues in the world looking out over the Kuensel Phodrang nature park, the southern approach to the capital Thimphu. Amazingly Thimpu"s population is 100,000, so there are more Buddha"s contained in this magnificent statue than people in Bhutans capital. Buddha Dordenma was built in honour of Jigme Singye Wangchuck 60th birthday as the fourth king of Bhutan. It sits upon a beautiful decorated mediation hall. The landscape will provide an unforgettable backdrop for you to experience unspoilt forested mountains which descend into the glacial valleys giving way to evergreen paddy fields of exotic red rice.

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Unique craft and textile holidays

There’ll be lots of opportunities to bring back samples of local crafts and feast your eyes on traditional uses of textiles such as prayer flags, embroidered thankras, colourful costumes. We pride ourselves on providing a unique experience for people who want to have a creative holiday with a difference. We want to show you the very best of Bhutanese crafts and provide a textile tour which will enthral you.

Keep an eye out for our next blog to see what other wonderful activities await you on this textile holiday to Bhutan with Colouricious Holidays or visit www.colouriciousholidays.com to see the full itinerary and book a place!

Learn, create, be happy!